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College provides path to public service

Even though Valen Diaz has known since high school that she wanted a career in health care, volunteer work in the Dominican Republic changed her forever.

An EMT before she entered college, Diaz came to UConn thinking she would go on to medical school. Instead, she will graduate this May with an individualized major in healthcare and health disparities. A visit with a service-learning group from the University to the batyes, enclaves where Haitian sugar cane workers live in the Dominican Republic, was life changing.

“I had never been on a plane or outside the country, but I was interested in learning about Latin America where some of my family is from,” she says. “I had never seen anything that extreme. After that, I looked at things in a whole new way.”

The daughter of a Cuban immigrant, Diaz also spent a semester studying in Cuba, an experience she describes as ‘”incredible.”

During the summer of 2008, Diaz completed an internship at the Hispanic Health Council in Hartford, working with the Health Outreach for Medical Equity pediatric care coordination program. She also participated in the University’s urban semester program in Hartford last fall and worked with the Hartford Food System and the City of Hartford Advisory Commission on Food Policy.

She found many people feel that providing a turkey to the poor at Thanksgiving or giving a small contribution to a food pantry will solve hunger, when in fact the issues are very complex and the needs vast.

“We need to provide sustainable food, help people to make healthier connections, sell good food at reasonable prices into small, local stores, and make sure our food is actually food. So much of our food is manufactured — it is not grown but made in labs,” she says.

An honors scholar, Diaz will spend the next two years teaching life science classes to seventh and eighth graders in the Watts section of Los Angeles as part of the Teach for America program.

One of the reasons the principal of the charter school wanted her, she says, was because she could speak some Spanish. “The school is 85 percent Latino and 15 percent black and most of the parents cannot speak English,” she says. “Surprisingly, only two of the teachers speak Spanish. ”

Although Diaz, the recipient of both a Rowe and a leadership scholarship and a finalist last year for the Truman scholarship, knows now that medical school is not right for her, she hopes to pursue a career in public health after the Teach for America program.

And in the meantime, she hopes to continue with her hobby — Spanish dancing. This year, she performed salsa, merengue, and bachata routines with UConn B.A.I.L.E. (Bringing Awareness Into Latin Ethnicities) at Jorgensen Auditorium’s Latin Fest.

Join us for a talk by Gina Barreca,2018 UCONN BOARD OF TRUSTEESDISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH

All great works of fiction, poetry and dramaâas well as texts forming mythologies, religions, national epics to heroic sagasâhave loneliness at the heart of their narrative. From Persephone to Peter Pan, from âFrankensteinâ to âFrozen,â the stories we pass along are saturated with unwilling isolation.âOnly around half of Americans say they have meaningful, daily face-to-face social interactions,â according to a 2017 study. A former U.S. Surgeon General argues that âWe live in the most technologically connected age in the history of civilization, yet rates of loneliness have doubled since the 1980s.â We need more than social media. We need social contact. We need community. How can we break through the loneliness barrier? Being alone when in need of companionship is more than sad; itâs an epidemic.Chronic loneliness is as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. We need to change our national story and, often, our personal ones as well.Even the concept of the âlone wolfâ is a myth. Wolves hunt in packs.

Reception to follow.

For more information about this event, or if you are an individual who requires special accommodation to participate, please contact the CLAS Deanâs Office at (860) 486-2713.

A liberal arts and sciences degree prepares students with the tools they need to excel across a wide range of careers. Given the number of options available to you, it can be overwhelming to narrow down career choices. Attending CLAS Career Night will provide you exposure to career opportunities for CLAS students.

This semesterâs focus will be on research-based careers. During this event you will engage with CLAS alumni, learn about various occupations, and gain insight about how to best prepare for your future career.

The McNair Scholars Program and the Office of Undergraduate Research invite you to join us for a brown bag research seminar.

Birds, Bacteria, and Bioinformatics: Why Evolutionary Biology is the Best

Sarah Hird, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology

This series is open to all undergraduate and graduate students, and is designed especially for students conducting (or interested in conducting) STEM research. These seminars are opportunities to learn about research being pursued around campus, to talk with faculty about their path into research, and to ask questions about getting involved in research.

About CLAS

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the academic core of learning and research at UConn. We are committed to the full spectrum of academics across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. We give students a liberal arts and sciences education that empowers them with broad knowledge, transferable skills, and an ability to think critically about important issues across a variety of disciplines.